I have heard a lot of people when they bought a new Mac they just reinstalled all the software and they never had any of these problems. It seems to be the default install that people have problems with

The other day, my screen sort of faded and a black box came up that said, "hold the power button to restart your computer" and it repeated this in about 12 different languages. Did I expereince a kernal panic? (Oh, I HAD to restart the computer...there was no option involved)

The other day, my screen sort of faded and a black box came up that said, "hold the power button to restart your computer" and it repeated this in about 12 different languages. Did I expereince a kernal panic? (Oh, I HAD to restart the computer...there was no option involved)

Most occurrence of kernel panic is related to hardware, such as overheating, or faulty memory.

It could result from faulty device drivers. The reason G5 suffers from instability and kernel panic is because the OS is not fully debugged with the use of new hardware.

It would NEVER result from application problems. Running cron tasks and fixing file permission will keep system up to date, but they are not going to cause problems in the kernel.

If you experienced kernel panic, the reason for that has probably nothing to do with what you were doing at that time. It's possible, but highly unlikely that what you did triggered the bug in the kernel. Consider kernel panic as a bad luck. There isn't much the users can do to avoid it.